iPaq + GR230 Bluetooth GPS
Just another bit of gadgetey goodness I whipped up recently. Ingredients as follows:
- 1 x Second-hand iPaq PDA from your local internet auction site.
- 1 x Bluetooth GPS receiver from anywhere, but I find Semsons provide excellent service, plus a free PDA mount (like the one pictured) with most purchases.
- 1 x PocketMV map viewer for Garmin IMG files.
- Assorted IMG files for your local area. You can find open-source maps for New Zealand here, or pay for slightly better quality ones like this.
Throw all the ingredients together, mix liberally, and leave to bake on your dashboard for several hours.
Seriously, PocketMV is the glue in the mix. It’s a nifty little piece of software that is different from most cheap ‘moving map’ PDA solutions, because it uses vector maps instead of ‘raster’ images. This means that the maps require many times less storage (e.g. 500kb for all NZ highways, and 600kb for a searchable street-map of Auckland), and also more dynamic in terms of zoomability. Other cheap moving map products require you to download and geo-reference (by marking a couple of known spots) image files, which means you have to decide on the resolution and zoom-scale of your maps before loading them.
Of course I’m highlighting the cheap part, because at US$20, PocketMV in no way competes with the higher-end solutions that also use vector maps, and provide 3D point-of-view display and turn-by-turn routing.
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